WALL OF REMEMBRANCE

Production of “Wit” in Playhouse Loft to carry photos of special people who have died of cancer.

KickstArt’s production of Margaret Edson’s multi-award winning play, Wit, comes to the Playhouse Loft in July for a short season after its appearance on the main frame of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. It then moves on to the Witness Hilton Arts Festival in September for one performance only.

Wit stars the hugely talented Clare Mortimer, along with a multi-award winning supporting cast including Neil Coppen, Liv Borgen, Alison Cassels and Jimmy Lithgow. The two KZN stagings mark the first time this drama is being presented in KZN.

The play begins with Vivian Bearing (Clare Mortimer), a renowned professor of English saying, "It is not my intention to give away the plot, but I think I die at the end. They've given me less than two hours."

Vivian has late-stage ovarian cancer. But to say that Wit is about cancer is misleading; it is really about finding a balance between head and heart. The play isn't a tearful lecture on how to die; it's a dry-eyed lesson on how to live. It is a play about language and ideas, philosophy and religion. It is at once funny, sad, tragic and life-affirming, complex and simple. The New York Times critic called Wit, "the kind of theatrical experience of which legends are made."

Quoting the programme notes: “Wit is that rare beast: art that engages both the heart and the mind. In Wit, Edson delves into timeless questions with no final answers: How should we live our lives knowing that we will die?”

For the duration of Wit, one of the walls in the Playhouse Loft will become a Wall of Remembrance to honour the lives of friends, colleagues and family lost to cancer. Audience members are invited to bring photos (copies, not precious originals!) of special people who have died of cancer so they can be pinned to the wall.

Wit runs in the Playhouse Loft from July 21 to 26. The production is supported by the Grahamstown National Arts Festival and the National Arts Council. Book at Computicket nationwide.